The Crucible
Many of literature's finest works have been a response against a social or political situation. The French Revolution was documented, romantically if not accurately, by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, and Victor Hugo in his masterpiece, Les Miserables. An excellent example of a modern event that inspired a masterpiece of fiction is the McCarthy Witch-Hunts. Arthur Miller wrote his play, The Crucible, in response to what he felt was madness on the part of Senator Joseph McCarthy. The author's revelations between the Salem Witch Trials of the seventeen century and the McCarthy Witch-Hunts of the 1950s were so powerful that an attempt was made to ban the book in the United States. By using a historical event and real people, and considerable artistic license, Miller created a dramatic tour de force parallel to the McCarthy Investigations in Un-American Activities. From 1950 to 1954, the four years that Joseph McCarthy served in the Senate were his glory days and America's darkest. In May 1954, he confronted the United States Army and its secretary, Robert Stevens with charges that they were Communist agents, and the famous Army-McCarthy hearings started soon after. With a television audience of twenty million Americans, th
There are clear character parallels throughout The Crucible to the McCarthy trials. Miller describes him in the first act: Mr. However, that experience never raised a doubt in his mind as to the reality of the underworld or the existence of Lucifer's many-faced lieutenants. ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**. Arthur Miller was a man who invested his belief in the old cliche history professors find joy to repeat, "He that does not know history is condemned to repeat it. Eisenhower, the president in office during the trials, helped the Army, his former employer, mount an impressive counter-attack. He does eventually, after signing fifteen death warrants, realize that the Salem Witch Trials was a massive deception, as the American public realized that the McCarthy Witch-Hunts were pointless and hurtful. When Gentiles in Hitler's Germany, for example, saw their Jewish neighbors being trucked of, or as in Soviet Ukraine saw the Kulaks sing before their eyes, the common reaction, even among those unsympathetic to Nazism or Communism, was quite naturally to turn away in fear of being identified with the condemned. Abigail had no evidence whatsoever that anybody was a witch at all, but could claim that they sent their spirits out to harm her. McCarthy himself made several attempts to ban the book from the United States. The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson sparked a large environmentalist movement.
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Acceptance Essays
